While the storytelling is the best element of the game, that’s really not a compliment, given this is not a story that needed to be told. As is the defining nature of his character, Gollum’s goals are not complicated and so you spend the whole game simply trying to catch up with Bilbo, to get your precious back. The game is set just before the events of The Fellowship Of The Ring (in which Gollum is only briefly referenced), long after he’s lost the One Ring to Bilbo Baggins and while he’s still in Mordor, initially as a prisoner.

If anyone had ever ended up pitching game ideas to him though we feel this one probably would’ve had a better chance than most, since it’s not really an action game and does try to focus on Gollum’s dissociative identity. Tolkien would not have been a fan of video games, had he ever lived to see them (he died in 1973 but we feel we would’ve heard if he spent his final years addicted to Pong) and we’re sure he would’ve hated the Shadow Of Mordor games in particular, given their loose adherence to his canon.

The lord of the rings video game gollum